WATCHDOG: Attorney used database to snoop on boyfriend

Sep. 20, 2013

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The lead attorney for Ohio’s law enforcement database resigned in 2009 after misusing the system but was not charged with a crime, The Enquirer has learned.

Attorney General Mike DeWine, responding this year to new concerns about access to the database now that Ohio is using facial recognition software, has said the threat of a felony prosecution is sufficient to prevent misuse.

Through the database, more than 30,000 police and court employees have access to information about nearly every Ohioan and to the state’s new facial recognition software, which has been under scrutiny since The Enquirer reported last month that it was rolled out without telling the public or increasing security.

The 2008 case, in which the lawyer browsed information about a boyfriend and people who were dating her friends, raises the question: Without stronger restrictions and security measures, how many cases of abuse are slipping by in offices across the state?

Ohio does not audit use of the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway, OHLEG, to try to catch people using the system for personal reasons, such as looking up an acquaintance’s address. Instead, the attorney general’s office keeps a record of every search made by all 30,000 users. If a local police officer is suspected of misusing the system – say, an ex-girlfriend calls the police department, wondering how he found her new address – the department accesses that record to see what, or who, the officer has been searching.

“I still think the protocol’s adequate,” DeWine told reporters last month. “We’re not aware of any misuse. ... The best deterrent is putting people in jail, quite frankly.”

That’s not what happened in 2008 – well before DeWine took over as attorney general.

That year, then-Inspector General Thomas Charles investigated the attorney general’s office, which was swirling with controversy after allegations that then-Attorney General Marc Dann promoted a culture of cronyism, sexual harassment, lavish spending and professional misconduct. Dann resigned in May 2008.

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Charles’ report included two pages about Erin Rosen, the lead attorney for the OHLEG operation, who admitted using the system at least 16 times to look up people she and her friends were dating.

“Rosen’s repeated use of the OHLEG system to run background checks on people who she and her friends were dating was clearly improper,” Charles wrote in his report. “Her misconduct was aggravated by the fact that she was the OHLEG system’s General Counsel and knew that using OHLEG for such purposes was an abuse of office.”

Rosen was suspended for five days and then transferred to the attorney general’s victim services division. She resigned in January 2009 but was not prosecuted. Rosen is now an attorney with Lyons and Lyons in West Chester.

“When the matter came up, I was transferred out of OHLEG, and my access was terminated. Then I resigned on my own,” Rosen told The Enquirer. “That’s typically how it was handled.”

Steve Raubenolt, the official who oversees OHLEG, had the same responsibility in 2008. He declined a request for an interview.

Current OHLEG policy says misuse may result in loss of access to OHLEG for the entire police department or for one individual and may result in criminal prosecution.

Misuse of OHLEG was written into state law as a felony in 2010, but people were prosecuted for misusing law enforcement databases before then. For instance, former Cincinnati police officer Helen “Lanie” Bliss ran an illegal background check on a man to help her boyfriend decide whether to do a marijuana deal with him. She was convicted in 2005 of unauthorized use of state property.

Since 2010, at least four alleged misusers of OHLEG have been prosecuted, according to DeWine’s office.

Whether to pursue a felony charge for people who misuse public property is up to county prosecutors, said Lisa Hackley, spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office. Rosen’s prosecution would have fallen to Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien, Hackley said. O’Brien’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

DeWine has appointed an advisory board to review the security of OHLEG and the facial recognition system. The board is considering whether to restrict access to OHLEG and require audits of the system.⬛